Companions

Baldur’s Gate 3 has ten companions, and the game never tells you which of them you are about to lose. Five walk up to you in the prologue or the first hour and can only be removed by killing them or by one bad answer at the end. The other five have to be fetched, and each has a window that a long rest, a raid or a single dialogue line can close. That is the split this guide is built on: not who is strongest, which our companion tier list already ranks, but how many ways each one can be gone for good.

The count is easy to read off our own coverage. A companion gets a dedicated recruit page only when the recruitment can be missed, and that is true of exactly five: Karlach, Halsin, Minthara, Jaheira and Minsc. Every companion has an endings page, and the number of bad endings on it is the number of ways the story can take them from you later. The table below puts both numbers side by side, and the rest of the guide walks through the ten in order of how careful you have to be.

Two things apply to all ten. Approval is a single meter per companion, raised and lowered by choices they witness, and the approval ratings page explains how it is read; a meter that hits dark red makes Wyll and Minthara leave camp outright. And the party holds four, so the mechanics guide covers swapping members at camp without a rest, because resting is the thing that advances the clocks below.

The five who come to you

Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Astarion, Gale and Wyll are all on the road between the Nautiloid crash and the Emerald Grove. None has a recruit page because none can be walked past for long: leave Shadowheart in her pod and she is on the beach anyway, leave Lae’zel in her cage and she turns up at the Grove. What can go wrong with these five happens later, at a temple, a portal or the Elder Brain.

Shadowheart

Shadowheart is the first companion you can act on, sealed in a pod aboard the ship. The free page gives both ways out: fetch the Eldritch Rune from the next room, or hack the console with Arcana. After the crash she lies unconscious on the beach clutching the Artefact, and the wake or take page explains why reaching for the Artefact instead of waking her costs trust before she has said a word.

She has the most coverage of any companion because her story has the most levers. Her approval favours restraint and Night Orchids, and the Night Orchid page maps three of the flowers in Act 2 and one in Cazador’s dungeon in Act 3. The romance hinges on Act 2, where stopping her from killing the Nightsong decides which of two Act 3 scenes you get. The two ways to lose her are the obvious one, killing her, and the Act 3 choice at the House of Grief: the Viconia choice page weighs surrendering her to Mother Superior against a fight in which Viconia reflects radiant damage at double strength, with Viconia’s Walking Fortress as the prize for siding with her. Her endings page runs to eight outcomes, from Dark Justiciar to saving or killing her parents, and the Patch 8 build pairs Tempest Cleric with Bladesinging Wizard.

Lae’zel

Lae’zel fights beside you on the ship and is caged by two Tieflings north of the crash. Free her and she joins; side with the Tieflings and she turns hostile, which is the first of four ways to lose her. The second is refusing Vlaakith’s portal at the Creche unless her approval is high and a DC 12 Persuasion roll passes. The third and fourth come at the very end: kill Orpheus to side with the Emperor and she leaves once the Elder Brain falls, and become a mind flayer yourself and she flies off with the prince whatever you had together. Her approval rewards cruelty and Gith loyalty, her romance is the earliest in the game, her endings decide the fate of the Githyanki, and the Patch 8 build moves her from Battle Master to Eldritch Knight.

Astarion

Astarion ambushes you on the Ravaged Beach with a knife at your throat and a dice roll to make him put it away. He has the fewest pages of the ten because his story is a straight line to Cazador, but his endings page still lists three ways to end up without him: kill him at any of several chances, hand him to the bounty hunter Gandrel near the Teahouse in Act 1, or become an Illithid, at which point he leaves because you are too ugly for his taste. Letting him ascend does not lose him, but it turns you into his pet. His approval wants cruelty and no judgement about the biting, the romance opens at the Grove party, and the Patch 8 build mixes three classes into an assassin.

Gale

Gale is a hand sticking out of the Ancient Sigil Circle at the Roadside Cliffs waypoint, and the roll to pull him free is the only check between you and a Wizard. What makes him fragile is the Netherese Orb in his chest. After two long rests or a fair approval rating he starts asking for magic items, and the Netherese Orb page covers the two detonations: at the end of Act 2, which kills the Elder Brain and ends the game early, or before the final battle, which wins it at the cost of Gale. His approval comes from kindness, magic and intelligence, the romance is the most involved of the set and ends with a proposal in the Mystra branch of his endings, and the Patch 8 build is a Bladesinging Wizard who takes Oath of the Crown at level 11.

Wyll

Wyll is teaching children in the Hollow at the Emerald Grove and says yes the moment you ask. He is lost three ways. Raid the Grove with Minthara and he attacks you on the spot, or is found among the dead if you never recruited him. In Act 2 his patron Mizora sits in a pod beneath Moonrise Towers; leave her there and Wyll is condemned to Avernus as a Lemure. And his approval page is explicit that a dark red meter makes him leave. The break the pact page sets out the DC 16 History check and the price: refuse Mizora and she says Duke Ravengard dies, which the page shows is avoidable. His romance is the easiest in the game, his endings range from Duke to Blade of Avernus, and the build is a Fiend Warlock multiclassed with Paladin.

The five you have to go and get

These are the companions with a recruit page, and each page exists because there is a way to arrive too late or say the wrong thing. Three of them are tangled in the same Act 1 decision, the fate of the Emerald Grove, and the raid or save comparison is worth reading before any of them.

Karlach

Karlach rests on the rocks past Anders and his paladins on the Risen Road, at X: 110, Y: 500. The recruit page is blunt: take her side against Anders or lose one of the best companions for nothing, and if Wyll is already with you, talk him out of killing her with a Persuasion roll. She is also the companion the Grove raid costs you, since she leaves the moment a druid dies, or never becomes recruitable if you had not met her. Her third exit is the ending: the infernal engine burns her out unless she goes to Avernus or takes the tadpole herself, and her endings page ties both to how far Our Fiery Friend has gone. Her approval is the easiest to earn, plain kindness, her romance waits on the engine being cooled enough to touch her, and the Patch 8 build spreads her across three classes.

Halsin

Halsin is a bear in a cell in the Worg Pens, and the location page gets you there through the Shattered Sanctum. Freeing him is only the start: he sits in camp through Act 1 and joins the party in Act 2 after Thaniel is saved, which the recruit page walks through from Art Cullagh’s lute to the portal fight. His endings list the three exits. He can die permanently in Act 1, because he is not a member you can resurrect. He is killed if you side with Minthara. And he can be lost in the Shadowlands if the Thaniel rescue fails. He also never appears if you kill the goblin leaders without speaking to him first. His approval choices only begin in Act 2, his romance triggers on a long rest in Act 3 with no fixed cue, and the Patch 8 build runs Circle of the Moon for a bear form that starts at 30 hit points.

Minthara

Minthara has six ways to be lost, the most of anyone, because she starts the game as one of the three goblin leaders. She dies if you kill her in the camp, if you agree to her raid and then ambush her army at the gate, or if the Dark Urge snaps her neck at the victory party. She is left in the Moonrise cells forever if you never go down to save her. She leaves if her approval hits dark red, and a Dark Urge player loses her at the end regardless. The recruit and side with pages give the two routes: hand her the Grove and lose Wyll, Karlach and Halsin, or put her down with a non-lethal blow, which Halsin counts as a kill, and collect her from the prison in Act 2 with everyone else intact. Her approval starts in Act 2, her romance needs 40 approval for the camp scene, her endings include the only good outcome that survives you becoming a mind flayer, and the Patch 8 build splits her between Vengeance Paladin and Shadow Sorcerer.

Jaheira

Jaheira holds the Last Light Inn in Act 2 and asks to join you rather than the other way round, but only after Ketheric Thorm is dead. Her recruit page is mostly about keeping her alive until then: if Isobel is taken when Marcus attacks the inn, the Harpers turn into wraiths and Jaheira dies with them; if you let Shadowheart kill the Nightsong she turns on you in the Shadowfell; and if you skip her at the inn, the last chance is the moment Ketheric’s Netherstone drops. Her endings add the Dark Urge, who can kill her as Bhaal’s Chosen. She cannot be romanced, a fact the romance page confirms before offering the mod that changes it, and her approval choices are all in Act 3 during The High Harper. The Patch 8 build keeps her a Circle of the Moon Druid with a multiclass for spell damage.

Minsc

Minsc is the last companion in the game and the only one gated behind another: without Jaheira alive and in your party he cannot be recruited at all. The recruit page takes you through Aid the Underduke, the Counting House vault, and the cistern valve puzzle in the Lower City sewers, then the fight in which you must knock him down without killing him. That fight is his other exit; his endings page opens with Minsc dying at your hand. He has no companion quest of his own and, like Jaheira, cannot be romanced, which his romance page settles. His approval is Act 3 heroics and keeping Jaheira alive, and the Patch 8 build makes the Ranger rage and frenzy for a Throw build.

Where the clocks are

Most of the losses above are decisions, but a few are timers, and every one of them counts long rests. Gale’s request for magic items begins after two rests or a fair approval, and Karlach’s pursuit quest ends after an unknown number of them. The Grove itself resolves without you once you cross into the Mountain Pass, which is how the neutral route to Minthara works: the raid fails, she is jailed, and nobody you recruited dies. The missable quests page lists every rest-driven cutoff, and the quests guide shows which companion stories branch and where.

Romance, and who is off the table

Eight of the ten can be romanced. Jaheira and Minsc cannot, and their romance pages exist to say so and point at the mod. The first scene is nearly always the camp celebration after the Grove is saved, which is why raiding it with Minthara removes so many options at once; Minthara herself is the exception, with a scene at the goblin party on the evil route and none in Act 1 on the good one. Lae’zel can be bedded in Act 1 on approval alone. Shadowheart’s Act 3 scene depends on the Nightsong. Halsin’s trigger is a long rest somewhere in Act 3. Gale’s ends in a marriage proposal if the Crown of Karsus goes to Mystra, Wyll asks you to rule beside him as Duke, and Karlach and Wyll can go to Avernus together if he becomes its Blade. The companion approval mechanics page has the thresholds these scenes wait on.

Builds for Patch 8

Every companion has a build page, and all but Wyll’s were rewritten for Patch 8. The pattern is the same throughout: origin characters keep their race and background, everything else is yours to change, and most of the builds change class at least once. The classes guide explains what each starting class commits you to before you follow one of these.

The two roundups

Our original companions guide dates from early access and is still the place for the five starting sheets exactly as the game hands them over: Wyll, Shadowheart, Gale, Astarion and Lae’zel with their equipment, skills and ability scores. The tier list covers all ten and puts Lae’zel and Shadowheart on top, Karlach, Astarion and Minthara next, and Jaheira and Wyll last, with a recommended subclass for each.

Companion questions

How many companions are there?

Ten: Astarion, Shadowheart, Gale, Lae’zel, Wyll, Karlach, Halsin, Minthara, Jaheira and Minsc. Four travel with you at a time and the rest wait at camp.

Can you have every companion in one playthrough?

Since Patch 5, yes. The only conflict was Minthara against Wyll, Karlach and Halsin, and the non-lethal knockout in the Goblin Camp removes it. Jaheira must survive Act 2 for Minsc to exist in Act 3.

Can you marry a companion?

Gale proposes in the ending where Mystra removes the Orb, and Wyll asks a romanced player to rule beside him as Duke. The other romances end with an invitation to leave together rather than a wedding.

Which companion is hardest to keep?

Minthara, with six ways to lose her and two acts of waiting between meeting her and recruiting her. Among the starting five it is Lae’zel, who walks away from any ending that leaves a mind flayer in charge of the party.